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Oxygen depletion was the reason behind why thousands of dead anchovies were found floating in Marina Del Rey over the weekend, state wildlife officials said.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Janice Mackey told the L.A. Times that they think the school of fish may have been trying to get away from a predator, but once they got in the harbor, they were trapped and died from depleting all the oxygen in the water. They came to this conclusion after they studied an aerial view of the beaches last week and saw a large school of anchovies traveling offshore.
“While the sight of so many dead fish may be startling to some, this is not considered to be too unusual,” Mackey said.
Similar incidents happened back in 2011 at Redondo Beach's King Harbor and Ventura Harbor.
The Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors had to clean up over 6 tons of dead fish, which were stinking up the area. Wildlife officials collected the samples and studied them.
